


Here, There Be Giants

by smithandmaiden



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-17
Updated: 2013-11-17
Packaged: 2018-01-01 19:13:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1047570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smithandmaiden/pseuds/smithandmaiden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short drabble set after the war when Sansa returns to Winterfell and finds an unexpected giant on the walls.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Here, There Be Giants

_"If the tales be true, that's not the first giant to end up with his head on Winterfell's walls."_

She isn't a little girl anymore. No, she's far from it, this cold hearted, raven haired woman that blankly stares at the snow gathering on the head of the man she had once called Father. But he wasn't her father. No, once, so long ago that is almost seems as if it was a tale she had been told as well, she had a father, and a mother, and siblings. Once, she was Sansa Stark, and she lived in this ruin of a castle and was almost happy. Once she had trained herself to forget them, but that was no longer. Once, she had fancied herself a southroner, but she is of the North, and the North remembers.

She had swung the sword herself, she who had decided his fate, and turned away once it was done. It was what her father had taught her, her true father, and it was one of the few of his lessons that she still held onto to this day. Most of the other lessons had been replaced by those taught to her by the pretender who had wished he was her father. There was little room is her head for Ned Stark while she had been Alayne Stone, but she was casting out her demons one by one, beginning with Petyr Baelish and Alayne Stone. Maybe now there would be rooms for the ghosts she wanted to see to come back and haunt her. Maybe they would bring with them the memories of the happier times she had experienced in this castle. Maybe they would finally bring her home. Wherever that was.

It is only after she has bathed and returned outside to face the frigid Northern Air that she realizes what they have done with the head, how it adorns the walls of her castle. It's the first time she's seen a head on a spike since Joffrey had forced her to look at her own father's head, and she doesn't look away this time either. In all the stories she had heard about Winterfell, Petyr had been the first one to mention giants on the walls, and it strikes her as just a touch ironic that he, the giant that had messed her life up so badly, has now joined the giants whose heads have adorned the walls of this castle. But there's just something wrong about it being up there, so she turns to one of her men and gives a order.

_"Take it down."_

They question her, but she is firm in her orders, watching them like a hawk to ensure that it is done. He may have been a giant, the man whose head sits on a spike before her, but he doesn't deserve to be displayed on the walls for everyone to see and remember. No, he deserves to be forgotten, written out of history so no one ever sings of his madness or heartbreak or treachery. The songs should be saved for the people who deserve them. The songs should be saved for other giants, whose shadows should be cast upon history, and for the heads on the wall that will haunt her in her sleep. The songs should be saved for her father, and for Bran and Rickon, whose heads have graced the walls of castles like the giants in Petyr's stories.

Someday, Sansa Stark will be sure that the ghosts and giants of Winterfell are sung about and remembered.

And when she does, Petyr Baelish won't be one of them.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first of hopefully many forays into the world of ASoIaF fanfiction. It was written fairly quickly and is un-betaed, so hopefully it's okay. I would love to hear some feedback so I can improve my writing for my next, hopefully happier, story!


End file.
